WEEK'S BIRTHS & DEATHS/FRED NEIL

The 16th saw the 105th birthday of Sleepy John Estes' mandolin & guitar player James 'Yank' Rachell; he was born in Sleepy's hometown of Brownsville Tennessee. It was also the 35th anniversary of the death of Arthur 'Baby Let's Play House' Gunter in Port Huron MI aged only 50.

The 16th would also have been the 75th birthday of Fred Neil. He was born in Cleveland Ohio and became one of the stalwarts of the folk revival scene in Greenwich Village. "Neil," as Dylan writes in Chronicles Volume One, "ran the daytimee show at the Wha?...was the MC of the room and the maestro in charge of all the entertainers. He couldn't have been nicer... he said I could play harmonica with him during his sets. I was ecstatic." Neil's own recollections made him an invaluable interviewee for David Hajdu's book Positively 4th Street, not least for his memories of Richard Farina.

As it happens, I was sent a CD in the post yesterday, a new album by the Newfoundland-based Superpickers! called Blues on the Ceiling. The title is that of a song by Fred Neil, and the album contains a fine version of it. The uncredited sleevenotes describe him as "the highly original and dark blues songwriter". He died in July 2001.

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the death of Tampa Red (in Chicago, aged 78). Dylan credits him with 'It Hurts Me Too' on Self Portrait and opened most of his great 1978 concerts with a song by Tampa Red: mainly 'Love With A Feeling' and 'She's Love Crazy' but occasionally 'But I Forgive Her' too. Michael Bloomfield knew Tampa Red  -  and describes visiting him in his memoir Me and Big Joe (1980). Finally  -  or rather, not, since this is not a death  -  Wyclef Jean has been shot in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during the presidential election campaign. On a 1998 track, 'Gone Till November', he sang the line "Gotta do some knockin' on heaven's door like Bob Dylan'. Dylan appears in the promo video. Wyclef Jean duly appears in the Mark Ronson 'Most Likely You Go Your Way' re-mix video.